Wrist weights/ankle weights training

[Cappadonna]

i was looking into buying some weights for the wrists, and ankles while training at home and while doing some heavy bag work.

any cons? are these bad on your joints or anything like that?

[dcrjradmonish]

Some are going to swear bye it others well tell you it well disrupt your correct motor patterns. I say use your common sense if it feels good and you see benefits continue if you notice it disability you in any way stop.

[Mr Punch]

Cons:

1) It is nothing like mimicking the stresses on your limbs of an unweighted punch.
2) It is teaching your muscles to overcompensate to slow down, so as to not injure your joints and muscles. Especially for any air punching.
3) It does nothing to increase strength at those weights, and causes bad form.

Pros:

1) It could increase endurance without damaging your form assuming you are using very light weights and doing upward actions (i.e. uppercuts, lifting kicks etc)
2) Er...

Conclusion.

Don't bother. Certainly doing it in the air is dangerous unless you are doing it very slowly with controlled muscle use as part of a stretching programme at the end of your workout. If you want to use weights on the bag, 16 oz gloves are about all that you need.

[solo1]

bad form and for the legs: shin splints. Pass.

[hulkout]

This may not apply to what you're asking about heavy bag work, but I used wrist weights early on when I was learning the Sil Lim Tao form of Wing Chun. It's important to imagine downward pressure on your arms when your extending them out for the first part of the form. This prevents you from raising your shoulders and also helps keep everything centered. It was a big help since I didn't have to imagine downward pressure. I had real downward pressure. I know back in the day, Bruce Lee and some other guys used iron rings for the same purpose. But I found wrist weights to be just as effective. I just put them up higher on my forearms so I could move my wrists and hands freely. As far as punching goes, I don't think it's a good idea. I've never tried it, but I'd imagine that it would be pretty hard on your joints if you're using fast motions like punching. Using weights for forms like Wing Chun or Hung Gar that are slower and more controlled can help, but punching seems risky.

[sanjuro_ronin]

Originally Posted by Cappadonna

i was looking into buying some weights for the wrists, and ankles while training at home and while doing some heavy bag work.

any cons? are these bad on your joints or anything like that?

Never, ever, use ankle and wrist weights in a high impact exercise.
Slow moving and controlled ones like Hulkout suggested are fine, but never anything ballistic.
You can use them when doing BW exercises like Bodyweight squats, dips, chins and such.
If you wanna add weight to your arms during HB work use the big 16OZ Boxing gloves, but I don't like the artifical and enlarged striking area they create unless you are very disciplined in keeping your strike zone very small.

[SteveLau]

Never, ever, use ankle and wrist weights in a high impact exercise

That is probably valid. I would recommend against striking bags while carrying weights.

Using rings will be good in slow or speedy exercises instead of wrapped weights. It trains us to have good control of our move. There is a likely shortcoming in striking air, especially in the braking part of a strike.



Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

[Cappadonna]

thanks for all the tips..

so what type of exercises would you guys suggest i do while wearing ankle/wrist weights?

[Frost]

Originally Posted by Cappadonna

thanks for all the tips..

so what type of exercises would you guys suggest i do while wearing ankle/wrist weights?

i suppose the first question to ask is what are you looking to get out of using them, are you trying to build strength, speed, stamina? do you have a goal in mind that you think using the weights will aid you in reaching?

[Cappadonna]

i'm interested in strength/stamina

[sanjuro_ronin]

Originally Posted by Cappadonna

i'm interested in strength/stamina

Two totally different things.

[Frost]

Originally Posted by Cappadonna

i'm interested in strength/stamina

Strength is primarily a result of the CNS and your muscles and is build most effectively by lifting heavy weights with long rests between sets, ankle weights will not be heavy enough for this purpose unfortunately, and will not provide the necessary stimulus to make the required changes in your body

Stamina can mean different things, better endurance is a result of now well your heart functions, how well it gets the oxygenated blood to your muscles, how efficiently your muscles can use that oxygen etc. using wrist angle weights might help with localised muscular endurance, but it won’t help with increasing your hearts ability to deliver oxygen around the body and to the muscles.

And as sanjuro ronin has pointed out strength and stamina are totally different and require different training methods which do not work well together

[Lee Chiang Po]

I can think of nothing really where leg or arm weights would be very beneficial, except mayby for doing exercises that would increase heart rate. The cross straddle hop, some call jumping jacks, is just one that comes to mind. I used to train with a close friend when we were much younger, and we did strength and muscle building exercises using heavy weight, followed by streching all the muscles of the body, then the jumping jacks until the heart was pounding pretty good. Then doing standing, deep abdominal breathing. I had to slow my breathing considerably as I was at times becoming drunk on oxygen. This will build strength, endurance, and the ability to feed and nourish the body with both nutrients and oxygen. Overall response to the muscle building part seemed to be vastly increased too.

LCP

[SteveLau]

Two totally different things.

by sanjuro_ronin.


IMHO, strength and stamina are not totally different things. When one builds up stamina, he will also build up some strength too. There is certain overlap of the two physical attributes. Stamina is more on our aerobic capability.



Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

[sanjuro_ronin]

Originally Posted by SteveLau

by sanjuro_ronin.


IMHO, strength and stamina are not totally different things. When one builds up stamina, he will also build up some strength too. There is certain overlap of the two physical attributes. Stamina is more on our aerobic capability.



Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

I simplified, what I SHOULD have said is that building strength and building stamina ( and building muscular endurance) need different training protocols.

There is always SOME transference, but certainly nothing to "write home about".

In a nutshell:
Strength is your ability to lift something heavy.
Stamina is your ability to do a given act for as long as you can.
Muscular endurance is the ability of your muscles do do a given action for as long as they can.